Buffing wheel and process of making the same



May 11, 1943. H. R. BENBOW 2,318,986 a BUFFING WHEEL AND PROCESS OF MAKING THE SAME Filed Feb. 1, 1945 2 Sheets-Sheet .1

E INVENTOR.

LW (W A TTORNEYS.

May 11,1943.

H. R. BENBQVY BUFFING WHEEL PROCESS OF MAKING THE SAME Find Feb. 1, 1943 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. I M 4a.. I "Maw A T TORNEYS.

Patented May 11, 1943 BUFFING WHEEL AND PROCESS OF MAKING THE SAME Henry R.

Benbow, New Hartford, N. Y., assignor to Divine Brothers Company, Utica, N. Y., a

corporation of New York Application February 1, 1943, Serial No. 474,277

12 Claims.

My present invention relates to buffing wheels.

The general purpose of my invention is to provide a long-needed improvement in buffing wheels of the type where the working zone of the buffing wheel has its sections composed of a plural ity of rings of flexible fabric puckered at their inner edges and confined by a rigid metal ring and fastened near their inner edges to a central rigid core with the said working zone rings held in distended position during operation of the wheel by centrifugal force, and which type of buffing wheels has said fabric rings made up of long strips of fabric formed in turn from shorter pieces of woven fabric cut on the bias with their angular ends sewed to adjacent short pieces producing seams extending diagonally of said long strips and consequently seams extending diagonally (viz. not radially) inward from the periphery of the said rings. This construction results in the said rings presenting only bias-cut edges at the periphery of the wheel, which give effective service over a long period of use.

This construction of bufiing wheel described briefly above has come into very general use but it has long been recognized that it has one very great disadvantage, in fact one which at times makes the bufiing wheel dangerous and which at all times is the cause of damage to the work being buffed, and of loss of time.

This difiiculty is that after a period of use the forwardly directed acute-angled points in the fabric begin to project outwardly beyond the periphery of the bufling wheel, and as soon as they project appreciably beyond the circle of the periphery of the wheel they make irregular scratches or marks upon the work being bufied.

which are disfiguring, necessitating rebufling of the work in order to eliminate them. Obviously time is lost in stopping the machine, trimming off the projecting point or points which are causing the damage, and rebufiing the work. Furthermore if a forwardly projecting point of fabric becomes loosened rapidly enough to give consederable length to the point the point may catch in the article being buffed and push it from the hand of the workman holding the article, or'

sometimes even loosen the article from the mechanical holder. Obviously if an article being buffed is thus caught by the projecting point of fabric the article may be thrown about the room and cause injury to a nearby Workman or damage to materials or machinery in the neighborhood. Of course as soon as a point of cloth thus projects enough so that the workman through his sense of touch realizes that the buffing wheel is not acting right he stops the buffing wheel and trims off the projecting point. It will be understood that the very rapid rotation of these buffing wheels prevents the projecting point of cloth from being visible.

In practice it takes a little time to stop the buffing wheel and a little more time to find the pro-. jecting point or points and to get them cut off in the proper manner. Then the bufling wheel has to be placed in motion again. All these opera-' tions consume time and sooner or later the same. buffing wheel will have to be stopped again to out ofi another point or to trim further down the points out off as needed before.

One purpose of this invention is to improve the said type of buffing wheel or the sections thereof by eliminating such of the acute-angled points of fabric that in practice would project outwardly after reasonable use of the buffing section, and to eliminate these points before the wheel is placed in use. In this way the manu-. facturer is provided with a buffing wheel of this character that is free of its characteristic defect. Further purposes of this invention are not only to provide a buffing wheel section from which these undesired forwardly projecting acute-angled points have been eliminated, but to provide a section never having these points and to provide a method of making and assembling buffing wheel sections of this bias-cut edged type of such special construction and shaping of its parts that there will be no forwardly directe ed acute-angled points of cloth when the section is originally produced, assuming of coursethat the wheel when used is rotated in its proper pre-- determined direction.

Further purposes and advantagesof my i'm -f provement will appear from the specification;

herein.

Fig. 1 is a side elevation or in effect aplari: view of one circular side of a bufiing wheel'jsec';

tion of the old form with a part of the near can-1 vas disk and of several of the annular rings of fabric cut away in order to shott the construc-' tion of the ring of fabric at the beginning of the, further half of the section and also of two layers in the near half of the section.

Fig. 2 is a View similar to Fig. 1 of a wheel section illustrating my improvement.

Fig. 3 is a plan View of the piece l5 of fabric including the acute-angled point C out out from' the right-hand side of the fabric ring In as shown in the right-hand side of the buffing .wheel section of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the pieceof fabric 15 of Fig. 3 after the fabric has been smoothed or straightened out.

Figs. 5, 6 and 7 are plan views on a small scale of pieces of fabric illustrating the steps of producing the long strips of fabric 2! having biascut edges.

Fig. 8 is a diagrammatic view showing part of one of the said long strips 2! going to the folding and puckering machine where by my process the acute-angled forwardly projecting points of fabric are eliminated before the fabric is rolled, folded and puckered. And Fig. 9 is. a plan view of one of the pieces it so removed.

Fig. 10 is a view similar to Fig. 8, but with the fabric 2| nearest the rolls 30 and 3| of the puckering machine shown as not yet wound upon said rolls While a length of said long strip 2| of fabric still farther to the right is represented not only as not yet puckered but as folded nearly together along its median line.

Referring to the drawings in a more particular description and first to the old form, it will be seen that the bufiing wheel section of Fig. 1 is composed of a plurality of annular rings ID of woven fabric fastened at their inner portion to the central rigid core H. These rings l are in effect built up of long strips 2| of woven fabric which are in turn built up of shorter pieces 12 of fabric cut on the bias with the reversely arranged diagonal ends of the adjacent pieces l2 sewed together by seams l3 which extend transversely of the long strips 2| but in a slanting or diagonal direction across said long strips, and in the rings extend inwardly from the periphery of the rings l 0 of a section in a slanting direction (that is, not radially disposed) as at seams l4.

Following a commercial development of the folding and gathering device of Levetts Patent No. 1,296,409 of March 4, 1919, enough of the long strip of fabric 2| is wound upon two aligned but spaced cylinders to make a roll of fabric having layers corresponding in number to one-half the number of rings ID in the desired buffing wheel section; then the fabric midway the axis of the roll is pushed or drawn in by suitable members moving radially inwardly to the desired extent to press the median ring of the roll of fabric down into the recess between the adjacent ends of the cylinders and closely to the periphery of th cardboard core il removably mounted between the adjacent ends of the cylinders. This operation puckers the median ring of the roll of fabric and while that part is held compressed and puckered one cylinder is removed and onehalf of the roll is drawn out axially so that the strong rigid ring l preferably of metal can be and is placed in position outside the compressed median zone of the roll of fabric closely adjacent the puckering member to hold the fabric compressed and puckered, and then the two halves of the fabric are arranged to extend radially outward from the core H and the set of annular rings l0 held to the core I l by the metal ring are removed as one assembled unit requiring only the stitching on or other strong permanent fastening of the heavy fabric disks I1 to the core and the rings as by the inner and outer annular rows of stitches l8 and 19 to complete the making of the section of the buffing wheel.

Ordinarily a large distinctly marked arrow 16 will be stamped or otherwise printed upon the outer face of one disk of canvas i! to indicate the direction in which this buffing wheel section should be rotated. As well understood in the art this is dictated by the construction of the wheel so that the final free end 20 of the strip fabric in the outermost ring ID will go by the work W in a trailing relation so that the end 20 of the fabric will never get caught in the work.

These diagonal seams M in the annular rings ll] of fabric are in one sense the price at which the diagonal cut edges are purchased or in another sense the means by which the diagonal edges upon the peripheries of the rings are obtained. These diagonal seams are directly responsible for the already explained defect in this type of buffing wheel.

Obviously each diagonal seam M will produce near the periphery an acute-angled point of fabric and on the other side of said seam an obtuse-angled point of fabric. The acute-angled points of fabric that engage the work in a trailing position as indicated in the upper part of Figs. 1 and 2 are marked A and the adjacent oppositely disposed obtuse angles of fabric are marked B. Th acute-angled points of fabric that project towards the work as shown in the lower half of Figs. 1 and 2 are marked C and the obtuse angles of cloth supplementing them are marked D.

By long use and study of buffing wheels of this type and by observation and study of the construction thereof, I have found that it is the acute-angled points of fabric such as C that project towards the work as the bufiing wheel is rotated in the predetermined direction that cause all the trouble, in that these acute-angled points by projecting towards the work give the article being buffed a chance to gnaw at this point until the outermost stitches in its adjacent seam l4 become loosened or cut away. These acuteangled forwardly projecting points when rotated towards the work produce substantially the result that comes about when a carpenter pushes his plane against the grain of a piece of wood that is somewhat cross-grained, viz: the points of the grain of wood are roughened up instead of being smoothed off.

In the lower half of Fig. 1 which represents several layers in the near half of the section here illustrated, the acute-angled point of fabric C seen to the left represents the original construction with the acute angled point C still supported by the adjacent stitches of seam 14 going to the adjacent edge of the obtuse angle D. The acuteangled point C shown in a layer still farther through this section of the buffing wheel is represented as having a few of its stitches that went to the adjacent edge of the obtuse angle D unraveled or worn out. This allows the point C to bend or fly outwardly beyond the circle of the periphery under the action of centrifugal force more or less as shown in the drawings. In the ring of fabric shown still further to the right the acute angled point C" has'had its supporting stitches of scam I 4 weakened or unraveled still farther back along th seam from the periphery and allows the point C" to project still further out beyond the periphery. It will be understood that any one of these acute-angled points of fabric that would project beyond the periphery towards the work during normal rotation of the wheel (as here shown in a counterclockwise direction) would at least cause these points to scratch the work and if th work was being held in the hands of the operator might pull the work from his hands and cause damage by throwing it against the workman or around the room. When acute-angled points that would project toward the work thus become loosened enough to project beyond the periphery of the bufiing wheel, the bufiing wheel should be stopped and these points trimmed oif.

It will be seen by reference to the upper half of Fig. 1 showing the ring of fabric l0 immediately beyond the metal ring l5 that an acute angle such as A opposite the obtuse angle B formed by the seam M in that ring of fabric will engage the work W in what I will call a trailing position, that is, the rotation of the buffing wheel past the work will tend to push the point back into the fabric and will not tend to unravel or break the stitches of the adjacent seam I 4. It will be noted here that the obtuse angled points, either B in the further and upper half of the bufiing wheel section of Fig. l or D in the near half of this section (shown in the lower part of Fig. 1), can not project beyond the periphery of the wheel as the fabric is continuous from the obtuse angle back to the respective securely anchored supporting areas for these points near the inner edges of these portions of the annular rings.

It may be stated that in one form of my invention I modify an already constructed bufling wheel section of the character described by eliminating these forwardly projecting, acute-angled points so that when the buffing wheel is placed into use it will not have these points of possible danger and of certain but lesser damage to the work. But in another form of my invention I provide two slightly varying processes of forming the buffing wheel sections including so shaping the buffing wheel fabric back in the process of making the sections and before the long strips of fabric are shaped into the annular rings with their edges bias-cut and with their inward portions puckered and before the said fabric is mounted within the metallic rigid rings with the opposite halves of the fabric radiating outwardly from said confining rings, so that the buffing wheel sections when originally produced or assembled, do not have these forwardly projecting acute-angled points. Such trimming back of these trouble-making points in the first form of my invention or their elimination in the second form of my invention has to be extensive enough to leave no fabric of the original point or of the eliminated point unsupported from the attachment of the fastening of the individual ring or that can possibly reach beyond the periphery.

This trimming off or original elimination of the forwardly projecting acute-angled points will be best understood by referring to the plan view of the bufiing wheel of this type shown in Fig. 2. In the nearest annular ring III of the near half of the bufl'lng wheel section shown and in the right hand half of the view there was originally one of these slanting or non-radial seams 14 leaving on the upper side an obtuse-angled point D and therebelow an acute-angled forwardly projecting point of fabric C. A piece of fabric l5 including this point C and all of its integral fabric extending back to a line beyond a line as 2425 extending out radially from the axis of the buffing wheel section and shown separately in Fig. 3 has been cut away as by cutting the stitches of seam M from its periphery up to a point as 23 nearly to the line of the outer row of stitches l9 that secures all the annular rings It to the strong fabric disks ll. From there the line of severance extends on a slant as line 25 extending somewhat rearwardly relative to the direction of rotation to the periphery and forming a newand well supported obtuse angle E of fabric that cannot project beyond the periphery of the bufling wheel and leaving a space l6 in this ring [0 the extent of which is indicated by the double pointed arrow.

Fig. 3 is a plan'view of the piece l5 thus cut out from the ring ill, the said piece being shown as still having a curved peripheral line and puckered towards its inner side as it was puckered before this piece l5 was severed.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of this piece after it has been straightened or smoothed out, thus'showing a straight line on the right-hand side that before was a part of the periphery of the ring Ill and showing at the top or further end of this piece I5 the straight diagonal line which with the righthand line forms the acute-angled forwardly directed point C.

On another level and on ring If!" shown in the left-hand portion of the lower side of Fig. 2 there is shown the space l6 from which another acute-angled forwardly projecting point C of the fabric has been removed, similar to that shown in Figs. 3 and 4. Furthermore, I may add that for a bias-cut peripheral-edged buffing wheel section of the type puckered by being mounted from within a rigid metal ring, all of the forwardly directed acute-angled points will be uniformly found in one half only of the section as divided by said metallic ring.

It is believed that a brief statement of the way in which the long strips 2! of the bias-cut edged fabric is produced and folded longitudinally incident to the puckering operation already mentioned is proper in order to explain the above statement that all of the so-called forwardly directed acute-angled points will be in one half of any given section of a buffing wheel, the-division line being made by the supporting rigid ring 55 of metal and to show the step ofmy process just before the puckering operation where the fabric in the long strip 21 is shaped so that after the fabric is puckered and mounted on the rigid holding ring and otherwise assembled into a buffing wheel section, there will be no forwardlyprojecting acute-angled points of fabric. It will i be noted especially that I still have a buffing wheel section of which all parts of the periphery are bias-cut. The small pieces of fabric trimmed off as pieces 55 from the space l6 of the section shown in Fig. 2 even when its five inches of periphery is multiplied by five or six the number of dangerous points on an ordinary bufiing wheel section of twelve inches diameter and having nine layers in each half will not appreciably reduce the buffing effect of the section, certainly not enough to counteract the gain of having a buffing wheel section with no dangerous or damaging points.

First, as shown in Fig. 5, a long strip or bolt of the proper buffing wheel fabric is folded lengthwise and sewed together along its edges by a special seam of stitches 26 of the nature of overcast stitching, thus forming a long tube of. fabric. These stitches are of such a character that when the tube of fabric is distended, the stitches will hold the edges of the fabric in a smooth butt-td-butt joint and not in an overlapped joint. This tube of fabric is then cut or slit spirally by cuts following the dash lines 25 on the near layer of the tube as shown in the plan View thereof Fig. 5, and by cuts follow ng the dotted. lines 28 indicating the cuts in the other or hidden half. This long spirally cut piece:

is then straightened out as shown in a plan view of a short portion thereof shown in Fig. 6. The seam 26 of Fig. 5 now appears as recurring angu- 5 larly arranged seams IS in a relatively wide, long piece of fabric. This wide piece is then cut lengthwise into several pieces of the proper width according to the width desired for the annular rings in of the completed bufiing wheel section.

Fig. 7 is a plan view of one of these relatively narrow long pieces having the recurring diagonally arranged seams l3. In Fig. 6 as well as in Fig. 7 the longitudinal edges of the long strips of fabric it will be seen are diagonally cut edges due as is well known in the art to the spiral cutting of the fabric tube of Fig. 5. The fabric of Fig. 7 is the fabric that simply from an examination of the finished bufiing wheel appears to be made up of the relatively short pieces 12 of bias-cut fabric having their diagonal ends sewed together in reverse arrangement so as to produce the long strip of bias-cut material which incidentally has diagonally arranged seams uniformly slanting in one direction.

And in fact as well as in theory these long strips of Fig. 7 with their diagonally arranged seams l3 were originally made out of shorter pieces l2 of fabric cut on the bias and having such shorter pieces joined together to make the long pieces used to feed to the puckering and folding machine before the labor-saving step of forming the tube of fabric and slitting it spirally was worked out. For that reason several of the process claims omit the tube-forming step and the spirally cutting thereof and start simply with the providing of a long strip of fabric formed of shorter pieces out on the bias with their diagonal or slanting ends sewed together by diagonally arranged seams uniformly slanting in the same direction.

Fig. 8 is a diagrammatical view of part of a long strip 2| of this bias-cut edged material being wound upon the aligned rollers of the folding and puckering machine already referred to as well known in the art and used as described to produce the bufling wheel sections of Figs. 1 and 2. Of the long strip 2| it will be seen that several layers of the fabric 2| have already been wound upon the rollers, the near one of which is shown at 30. In this view short dash lines indicate the piece of fabric l5 that at this stage of manufacture can be cut out either by hand or by a machine operating on the near side of the strip 2| (as the parts are here shown) and on the near side of the diagonal seams l3 to eliminate according to my process what would be the forwardly-projecting acute-angled points C. By observing the position of the strip 2! that has not yet been p a on the roller 30 and its mate (unseen), it will be obvious that all of the forwardly-directed acute-angled points are at one edge (viz: the near edge as the material is shown as being handled) and plainly this condition will follow all through the different layers wound at one operation and from one piece 21 of fabric or from similar pieces 2! similarly arranged and fed to the folding and puckering machine and forming successive sections of this type of a bufiing wheel.

Fig. is a view similar to Fig. 8 but with the first layer of the fabric to be used for making a section of the bufiing wheel as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 not yet wound upon the spaced rolls 3i! and 3| and not yet puckered but with the nearer part represented as folded along its median line which in fact does happen as one of the results of the puckering operation as already described. By comparing Figs. 8 and 10 and then Figs. 1 and 2 it will be seen that the flat layer of the fabric of Fig. 8 has in the extreme right hand portion of Fig. 10 been folded along its longitudinal median line so that the former upper faces of its two lengthwise extending halves now extend radially from the confining iron ring of Figs. 1 and 2 and what was the undersurface of the near half of the fabric of Fig. 8 now extends radially of the metal ring I5 of Figs. 1 and 2 and faces the observer as appears in Figs. 1 and 2 and contains all the forwardly-directed acuteangled points. In a similar manner and from a similar swinging of the material through an angle of degrees, the upper surface of the further longitudinal half of the fabric of Fig. 8 has become the surface that faces the observer in the rings III of the further half of the bufiing wheel section of Figs. 1 and 2 appearing in the upper half of each of those views and has all the rearwardly directed acute-angled points A.

What I claim as new is:

1. In a buffing wheel of the one-way rotation type, and having a rigid center and projecting therefrom a working zone reaching to the periphery and composed of annular rings of fabric having their periphery cut on the bias, said rings being formed of long strips of fabric puckered on their edges toward said solid center, said long strips being formed of shorter pieces of fabric cut on the bias with their angular ends sewed to adjacent short pieces resulting in seams extending diagonally of said long strips producing an acute angle of fabric on one side of each seam adjacent the periphery and an obtuse angle on the other side, the acute angles that would project towards the work being trimmed off to make an obtuse angle.

2. In a bufiing wheel of the one-way rotation type, and having a rigid center and projecting therefrom a working zone reaching to the periphery and composed of annular rings of fabric having their periphery cut on the bias, said rings being formed of long strips of fabric puckered on their edges toward said solid center, said long strips being formed of shorter pieces of fabric cut on the bias with their angular ends sewed to adjacent short pieces resulting in seams extending diagonally of said long strips producing an acute angle of fabric on one side of each seam adjacent the periphery, and an obtuse angle on the other side, the acute angles that would project towards the work being trimmed off to make an obtuse angle, so that the remaining acute angles engage the work in a trailing position which with all the obtuse angles whether engaging the work in a, propecting or trailing position, have no tendency from centrifugal action to project beyond the periphery of the wheel.

3. In a buffing wheel of the one-way rotation type, and having a rigid center and projecting therefrom and secured thereto a working zone reaching to the periphery and composed of annular rings of fabric having their periphery cut on the bias, said rings being formed of long strips of fabric folded lengthwise through their center and puckered on their edges toward said solid center, said long strips being formed of shorter pieces of fabric cut on the bias with their angular ends sewed to adjacent short pieces resulting in seams extending diagonally of said long strips, producing an acute angle of fabric on one side of each seam adjacent the periphery and an obtuse angle on the other side, the acute angles that would project towards the work being trimmed off to make an obtuse angle.

4. In a buffing wheel section having a rigid center and therebeyond a working zone formed of a plurality of rings of flexible fabric secured at-their inner portions to said rigid center and adapted to be held distended by centrifugal action, said rings being formed of long strips of fabric puckered near their edges towards said solid center, said long strips being formed of shorter pieces of woven fabric cut on the bias with their angular ends sewed to the reversely arranged angular ends of adjacent short pieces, resulting in seams extending diagonally of ,said long strips and producing an acute angle of fabric on one side of each seam adjacent the periphery of the wheel and an obtuse angle on the other side of the seam, the acute angles that would project towards the work when the wheel is rotated the predetermined direction being trimmed off to make an obtuse angle so that there are no forwardly projecting acute angles to project beyond the circle of the periphery when a seam becomes loosened near the periphery.

5. In a bufiing Wheel section having a rigid center and therebeyond and secured thereto a working zone formed of a plurality of rings of flexible fabric secured at their inner portions to said rigid center and adapted to be held distended by centrifugal force, said rings being formed of long strips of fabric folded lengthwise through their center and puckered near their edges towards said solid center, said long strips being formed of shorter pieces of woven fabric cut on th bias with their'angular ends sewed to the reversely arranged angular ends of adjacent short pieces, resulting in seams extending diagonally of said long strips and producing an acute angle of fabric onone side of each seam adjacent the periphery of the wheel and an obtuse angle on the other side of the seam, the acute angles that would project towards the work when the wheel is rotated the predetermined direction being trimmed oif to make an obtuse angle so that there are no forwardly projecting acute angles to project beyond the circle of the periphery when a seam becomes loosened near the periphery.

6. In a bufiing wheel section having a rigid center and therebeyond and secured thereto a working zone formed of a plurality of rings of flexible fabric secured at their inner portions to said rigid center and adapted to be held distended by centrifugal force, said rings being formed of long strips of fabric arranged at their longitudinal center about the inside of a rigid ring with the opposite halves of the strips extending to the periphery and puckered adjacent said rigid ring, said long strips being formed of shorter pieces of woven fabric out on the bias with their angular ends sewed to the reversely arranged angular ends of adjacent short pieces, resulting in seams extending diagonally of said long strips and producing an acute angle of fabric on one side of each seam adjacent the periphery of the wheel and an obtuse angle on the other side of the seam, the acute angles that would project towards the work when the wheel is rotated the predetermined direction being trimmed off to make an obtuse angle so that there are no forwardly projecting acute angles to project beyond the circle of the periphery when a seam becomes loosened near the periphery.

'7. A buffing wheel section having a rigid center and secured thereto and projecting therefrom a working zone composed of annular rings of flexible woven fabric having their periphery bias-cut, said rings being formed of long strips of woven fabric folded lengthwise through their center and puckered on their-edge toward said solid center and having diagonally extending seams normally producing an acute angle of fabric on one side of each seam adjacent the periphery and an obtuse angle of fabric on the other side of the scam, the said acute angles of fabric that would project towards the work when the Wheel is rotated in the predetermined direction being trimmed off to make an obtuse angle, so that the remaining acute angles engage the work in a trailing position. l

8. A buffing wheel composed of a central solid core and secured thereto and projecting radially therefrom a plurality of annular rings of flexible, woven fabric, said rings being formed from a roll.v of bias-cut fabric arranged within a rigid metal ring with its halves spread radially outward from said metal ring, each of said halves forming one of said annular rings and having only a bias-cut edge at their peripheries, said rings having diagonally arranged seams extending inwardly from the periphery of the wheel and-normally producing an acute angle of fabric on one side of each seam adjacent the periphery and an obtuse angle of fabric on the other side of the seam, the said acute angles of fabric that would normally project towards the work when the wheel is rotated in the predetermined direction being trimmed off to'an obtuse angle sub-' stantially back to the point of support.

9. The process of making buffing wheel'sections of the type having a rigid central core and projecting therefrom a working zone composed of a plurality of annular rings of flexible woven fabric with their peripheral edges bias-cut which process consists of providing such rigid cores, converting a length of woven fabric intoia tube by sewing together the opposite longitudinal edges of said length of fabric, cutting said tube spirally forming a relatively wide length of fabric with its threads on the bias and its longitudinal edges bias-cut and with portions of said original seams diagonally arranged at recurring intervals, cutting said relatively wide length of fabric lengthwise into long strips twice the width of the required annular rings and each having said recurring diagonal seams and each producing at each periphery an acute and an obtuse angle of fabric adjacent the edge of the strip and having its longitudinal edges bias-cut, then winding enough of such a strip about and spaced out from one of said central rigid cores to make a roll having layers equal in number to half the desired annular rings of a section meanwhile cutting off the acute angles of fabric on the side of said roll where the said angles would point to the work when the section is rotated in the predetermined direction, compressing the center of said roll toward said core, then placing a rigid metal ring around the center of said roll on the core and turning the fabric on the opposite sides of the ring outward radially and securing the fabric of a section to its core.

10. The process of making buffing wheel sections of the type having a rigid central core and a working zone projecting therefrom composed of a plurality of annular rings of flexible woven fabric with their peripheral edges bias-cut, which consists of providing such rigid cores, providing a long length of woven fabric composed of shorter pieces of fabric cut on the bias and connected lengthwise by similarly arranged diagonally extending seams so that the longitudinal edges are bias-cut and there are acute angled points of fabric on one side of each said seam at each edge of the strip and obtuse angled points at the other side of the seam; placing in spaced relation about one of said cores layers of said strip, half in number of the rings desired in a section and meanwhile cutting off the acute angles of fabric on the side of the roll where the angles would point to the work when the section is rotated in the predetermined direction, compressing the center of said roll to the core to form a puckering of the rings on their edge nearest the core, placing a rigid metal ring around said puckered center of the roll and then turning the fabric on the opposite sides of the metal ring outward radially and securing the fabric of a section to its core.

11. The process of making buffing wheel sections of the type having a rigid central core and projecting therefrom a working zone composed of a plurality of annular rings of flexible woven fabric with their peripheral edges bias-cut, which process consists of providing such rigid cores, converting a length of woven fabric into a tube by sewing together the opposite longitudinal edges of said length of fabric, cutting said tube spirally forming a relatively wide length of fabric with its threads on the bias and its longitudinal edges bias-cut and with portions of said original seams diagonally arranged at recurring intervals, cutting said relatively wide length of fabric lengthwise into long strips twice the width of the required annular rings and each having said recurring diagonal seams and each producing at each periphery an acute and an obtuse angle of fabric adjacent the edge of the strip and having its longitudinal edges bias-cut, cutting off the acute angles of fabric on the side of strip where the angles would point toward the work when the section is rotated in the predetermined direction and winding enough of said strip about and spaced out from one of said central rigid cores to make a roll having layers equal in number to half the desired annular rings of a section, compressing the center of said roll toward said core, then placing a rigid metal ring around the center of said roll on the core and turning the fabric on the opposite sides of the ring outward radially and securing the fabric of a section to its core.

12. The process of making bufiing wheel sections of the type having a rigid central core and a working zone projecting therefrom composed of a plurality of annular rings of flexible woven fabric with their peripheral edges bias-cut, which consists of providing such rigid cores, providing a long length of woven fabric composed of shorter pieces of fabric cut on the bias and connected lengthwise by similarly arranged diagonally extending seams so that the longitudinal edges are bias-cut and there are acute angled points of fabric on one side of each said seam at each edge of the strip and obtuse angled points at the other side of the seam cutting off the acute angles of fabric on the side of strip where the angles would point toward the work when the section is rotated in the predetermined direction and winding enough of said strip about and spaced out from one of said central rigid cores to make a roll having layers equal in number to half the desired annular rings of a section, compressing the center of said roll to the core to form a puckering of the rings on their edge nearest the core, placing a rigid metal ring around said puckered center of the roll and then turning the fabric on the opposite sides of the metal ring outward radially and securing the fabric of a section to its cor HENRY R. BENBOW. 

